“WAs the 50th anniversary of the April revolution is going to be celebrated, it made a lot of sense to me that this was part of the show”, the illusionist, who is now writing the script for the magic show that will debut at the Geffen Playhouse next year, told Lusa. .
“I am the first person in my family to be born after April 25”, he indicated, drawing a contrast with people who “did not have the same opportunities because they were from another generation” and lived in a period of dictatorship.
“That revolution and that openness made me have the opportunities that I had and the career that I have.”
Living in Los Angeles for 12 years, Helder Guimarães wanted to reflect in this new show his experience as a Portuguese emigrant in America in a post-April 25th context and how that shaped his life.
“It is a very different emigration from the one that existed from Portugal in the past, of an unskilled generation that went in search of better living conditions within a dome that did not allow them to grow very much”, he considered.
Even with qualifications, Helder Guimarães had to overcome many obstacles to build his career as an illusionist and reach the success he has today, with several shows sold out over the last few years.
“If I had to make a metaphor in relation to the aspects that will be spoken about emigration, it is really putting the cards on the table”, he described. “There are a lot of people in America who, no matter how good their intentions may be, have no idea what it takes to legally live in America and survive.”
“The Hope Theory” will be a review of what he went through with personal stories of difficulties and injustices, in which he will reflect on the way in which people who come from another country are devalued “that sometimes they don’t even know where it is on the map”.
Guimarães spoke of a certain pattern of invisibility of emigrants in America. “Looks like they don’t see you,” he said. “When you have to do a job that no one wants to do, the first idea you have is that emigrants from Latin America are doing this. For everything else, it seems that emigrants are invisible bodies that are there”.
The show will be on stage for a minimum of seven weeks with a possible extension of another four or five, similarly to what happened with the previous ones.
There will also be a Spanish version, which will mark the first time that the Geffen Playhouse has presented a show in a language other than English. It is something that Helder Guimarães considered appropriate given the size of the Hispanic community in Los Angeles and the issue of emigration.
“What I’m going to tell you are many episodes that happened to me”, he said. “My idea is that people can understand some of the difficulties and barriers I’ve had over these years”.
The show will be staged by director Frank Marshall, continuing a collaboration that has had good results in previous productions.
“There will be a series of crossed themes here, not least because we are in a politically very interesting time at a global level, where the extreme right is growing”, he underlined. “It’s always good to remember what once existed”, referring to the dictatorship that ended with Abril.
The show’s title refers to CR Snyder’s Theory of Hope, according to which three things are needed to have hope: a concrete goal, believing that you can achieve it through action, and realizing that there are several ways to achieve it.
“I’m going to talk about the idea of what hope is and how I think it’s important when you make a drastic decision in life”, explained Guimarães.
That’s what allowed him to overcome the obstacles when he arrived in the United States, with no contract and no way to survive more than six months, facing the indifference of many in the industry.
“I’ve had episodes of people clearly telling me that Americans don’t care about foreigners,” he recalled. “There’s an almost defensive mechanism that most Americans have and sometimes they don’t even realize they have it,” she continued.
“The ironic part is that, unless they are indigenous, Americans are all emigrants,” he said. “It’s funny how there’s this lack of empathy.”
Also Read: Portuguese celebrated April 25th and celebrated freedom in Venezuela
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